Happy New Year to all of my friends, family and blog visitors!! It has been a few years since I’ve joined up with Team in Training (TNT) for an endurance event. After three straight years of fundraising and training, I needed a break. The fundraising for TNT is hard. It’s time-consuming, a little uncomfortable and it is truly a chore. Then, on top of that, you have your actual training for your event.

Over the past several months, there have been a couple of things that have happened that started to light a little bit of a spark in me to join TNT again. The first thing was when I found out that the Nike Women’s Marathon series was adding a half marathon race in Washington, DC.

This summer I got to spend a week and a half with my sister and her family on a road trip. One of our stops was in DC (see picture below). We were only there about 36 hours but I fell in love with the place and knew I will go back some time soon. PLUS, the Nike Women’s marathon is something that I’ve always been interested in (they have had a race in San Fransisco for years). This race is really catered to women. There is a chocolate stop on the race course and the race medal is actually a necklace with a pendant for that specific race made by Tiffany’s (by the way, your race medal is handed to you on a silver platter by a man in a tuxedo at the finish line).

My sister, BIL and nieces in front of the White House

So, I started with the thought that this race just might be something I might like to do. It’s the same weekend as the Country Music Half Marathon in Nashville that I usually try and do so I knew the training wasn’t going to be an issue. And then, something else happened that sealed the deal for me.

For about fifteen months now I have been part of a team on Sparkpeople (a free online weight loss site) that has really become family to me. In this Biggest Loser Challenge, we are broken down into teams of about 30 and my team, the Sparkling Sapphires, share so much more than just our weight loss. We share life! This past round of our challenge brought us some real struggles and heartaches and we leaned on each other to help support those through some very hard times these past few months.

On of our team members, Juanita, had just made a huge change in her life and she was dealing with some really strong depression. But she kept checking in with us and letting us know how things were going. She refused to just give up! We were all starting to see a turn around in her and things were looking up. Then she had one bad day and tried and tried to find someone to help her. She finally was able to go into the hospital where they drew blood to do some blood work.

Juanita was told that she has a rare form of Leukemia (it’s actually two different strands of Leukemia) and they weren’t sure how to go about treating it. She ended up being transferred to a hospital in Kansas City while the doctors worked on finding the best way to treat her for Leukemia. She continued to check in when she could and she continued to exercise and join us for challenges as long as she could. Juanita’s never-quit attitude and determination has inspired me since I first met her online.

I have a quote hanging on my office wall that says, “Today I will do what others won’t, so tomorrow I can do what others can’t.” I am going to do this half marathon in honor of Juanita and all of the others fighting Leukemia or Lymphoma who can’t get out there and do it themselves.

Yes, training will be hard and yes, the fundraising will be hard but you know what? It’s not as hard as sitting in a hospital waiting to find out what will have to happen to save my life. It’s not as hard as having to drive miles a few times a week for treatment. It’s not as hard as losing a loved one. So, today I will do what others won’t. Will you?